But mine also contained a teddy bear that I've had for years and decided to bring to a new home here in Vietnam.

Today, our bus pulled out at 6 a.m. (Our start times get earlier and earlier. Tomorrow, I think we have to be gathered by 5:45 a.m.)

We headed to the ferry, crossed the river and drove a few hours to Thanh Phu village.

We started out in a bus, then switched to a small van because the roads are so very narrow and a bus wouldn't fit! We went about 30 mph, eventually getting to the village.

Hundreds of people, mostly in identical coolie hats, awaited us. (All coolie hats seem to look alike. Only the cloth that goes under the head varies in color. Mine is beige.)

We set up our clinics in a school very close to a little cemetery. The above-ground graves were less than 10 feet from where I worked in the doctor's area!

The people don't speak English, but their broad smiles and bows screamed WELCOME to us.

We took care of 566 people today and saw several cases of tuberculosis, some sexually transmitted disease, the usual bone and muscle problems, high blood pressure and some diabetes. We saw tumors that need sophisticated tests before an exact diagnosis could be made, people missing limbs since the Vietnam war and fragile, elderly people whose lives of hard work were written on their faces and in their bodies.

My little station also had a surgical procedure involving the removal of a cyst from atop a lady's head.

As the clinics went on, I wondered "WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN? AREN'T THERE ANY BABIES IN VIETNAM?" We've seen very, very few babies and not many children.

One, a 7-year-old girl named Tran, was unforgettable and brought tears to my eyes. She was born with hydrocephalus (fluid on her brain) which never was treated. Consequently, her head is now more than triple the size of a normal child's head and she appears to be blind and brain-damaged.

Her sweet mother takes excellent care of her and just wondered if we had anything at all to help the little girl. Back home, she would have had surgery as an infant and not gotten into the condition she's in now. Our medical director said it's a marvel the child has lived so long and it's a tribute to the mother's good care.

I gave that child my teddy bear, which she could feel if not see. The bear plays "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" when wound up in the back, so the little girl could hear it too. My heart broke. We want to save them all  but sometimes we can't offer anything but love.

The heat is intense here, and most of us think we've never sweated more. Meanwhile, I know it's cold back home. Hey, send us some cold weather, please! We gave worked in tough circumstances here; the weather saps the strength. The outhouses were fairly bad too, and I think I stood on a dead bird during a visit there, dear me!

We left late in the day, made our way to the ferry boat and boarded it along with zooming motorcycles, squealing pigs and dozens of tired pedestrians, including us! The Vietnamese sky was so gorgeous, with twinkling stars above and lightning flashing in the distance.

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